M0NESY reunites with former G2 Esports teammate NiKo in Team Falcons ahead of the Austin Major in June.
Team Falcons has officially completed the signing of Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) superstar 
Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov from 
G2 Esports on Monday (14 April), reuniting the Russian prodigy with his former G2 teammate 
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač ahead of the BLAST.tv Austin Major in June.
M0NESY will be taking over as Falcons' AWPer from Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov, who was benched ahead of the completed transfer. This landmark roster move notably comes after Falcons won PGL Bucharest 2025 by defeating m0NESY and G2 in the grand finals on Sunday (13 April), with degster notably leading the team to victory and earning the MVP nod from HLTV.org in his final tournament as part of the roster.
M0NESY notably had eight months left on his contract with G2 before his long-rumoured move to Falcons was expedited. While the financial terms of his transfer were not disclosed, a report by CS2 insider Guillaume “neL” Rathier claims that it was “a multi-million dollar deal and the biggest transfer in Counter-Strike history.”
For context, the record for the biggest confirmed player transfer in Counter-Strike sits at at US$2 million, reached twice by the transfers of Denis “electronic” Sharipo and Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy from 
Natus Vincere to 
Cloud9 as well as 
Martin “stavn” Lund and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard from 
HEROIC to 
Astralis, with both transactions happening six months apart in 2023.
M0NESY reunites with NiKo in Falcons
Falcons have now reunited arguably the best star pairing in recent CS history in m0NESY and NiKo. The two played together under the G2 banner from January 2022 to January 2025 and won six S-Tier tournaments together: BLAST Premier: World Final 2022, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2023, IEM Cologne 2023, IEM Dallas 2024, BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, and BLAST Premier: World Final 2024. During his tenure with G2, m0NESY cemented himself as arguably the best AWPer in the game and one of the outright best players in the world.
Since entering the CS esports scene in 2021, Falcons have constantly attempted to assemble a superstar squad through numerous free agent signings. The organisation massively stepped up its efforts this year with their acquisition of NiKo in early January alongside the signing of René “TeSeS” Madsen, 
Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski, and the now-benched Degster from HEROIC.
Rounding out Falcons' roster are Emil “Magisk” Reif and coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen, two of the most decorated figures in CS history and key players in the Astralis dynasty that won four Major titles.
With Falcons adding m0NESY to a roster that had already finished second in PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 and won PGL Bucharest 2025, the team is expected to be among the biggest contenders for the Austin Major championship alongside other powerhouses in 
Team Vitality and 
Team Spirit.
M0NESY is set to make his tournament debut with Falcons in IEM Melbourne 2025 on 21 April. The team is also set to compete in BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 from 30 April to 4 May and IEM Dallas 2025 from 19 to 25 May ahead of their Austin Major campaign in June.
Team Falcons CS2 roster:
